The Bangladesh Awami League (Bengali: বাংলাদেশ আওয়ামী লীগ, lit. 'Bangladesh People's League'), simply known as Awami League (Bengali:[awɐmiliːg]), is one of the major political parties in Bangladesh. The oldest existing political party in the country, the party played a large role in achieving Bangladeshi independence both before and after the Bangladesh Liberation War. It is also one of the two most dominant parties in the country, along with its archrival Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Throughout its tenure as the ruling party from January 6, 2009 to August 5, 2024,[5] it has been consistently described as authoritarian[a] and dictatorial.[b]
After the emergence of independent Bangladesh, the Awami League won the first general elections in 1973 but was overthrown in 1975 after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The party was forced by subsequent military regimes onto the political sidelines, and many of its senior leaders and activists were executed or jailed. After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the Awami League emerged as one of the principal players of Bangladeshi politics. Since 2009, when the Awami League came to power, Bangladesh experienced democratic backsliding.[19][20][21] It was continuously in power between 2009 and 2024, when it was finally overthrown with the students'–people's revolution.
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